Program Status of DoD Weather Satellites

The Department of Defense (DoD) is readying the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Flight 19 satellite for a March 2014 launch into the early morning orbit in support of environmental monitoring after the restructure of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program. In this presentation, the Defense Weather Systems Directorate (DWSD) will provide a status update on the Flight 19 and 20 DMSP satellites and how the DoD and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are working together to operate the satellites and reduce data latency. Also included in the presentation is an update on DWSD's involvement in the COSMIC-2 program, an interagency and international partnership between NOAA, USAF, and Taiwan's National Space Organization (NSPO) to provide cost effective environmental monitoring. Additionally, the update will include information on the results of the recently concluded analysis of alternatives for the Defense Weather Satellite Follow-on (WSF) program.